The present invention relates to a method of filling liquid into a liquid containing member, and a liquid filling apparatus. The invention also relates to a method of inspecting a liquid containing member.
As a liquid jet apparatus which jets liquid to a target, an ink jet type recording apparatus has been used widely. Specifically, this ink jet type recording apparatus includes a carriage, a recording head mounted on the carriage and functioning as a liquid jet head, and an ink cartridge used as a liquid containing member which contains ink as liquid therein. While the carriage is being moved in relation to a recording medium, the ink is supplied from the ink cartridge to the recording head, and the ink is ejected from a nozzle formed in the recording head, whereby printing is performed on the recording medium of the target.
In such the ink jet type recording apparatuses, there is an apparatus in which an ink cartridge is not mounted on a carriage in order to reduce load onto the carriage or to reduce size/thickness of the apparatus (so-called Off-carriage type). An ink cartridge applied to such the printer includes usually an ink pack used as a bag-shaped liquid containing part which contains ink therein, and a case which houses the ink pack. The ink in the ink pack is supplied to a recording head through an ink supply tube (refer to, for example, JP-A-2003-53984).
This ink pack is made of a bag-shaped film, and has a bag part provided with a communication part. After ink has been filled into the bag part from an opening part of the bag part, the opening part is heat-welded, whereby the bag part is sealed hermetically. At this time, into the bag part, the ink must be filled in a state where clean and degassed levels are high. Further, in case that a poorly welded portion exists in the ink pack, ink leaks from its portion. Moreover, in case that damage such as a minute pore exists in the flexible film itself, there is fear that the ink leaks from its damage portion.
An inspection method of confirming the presence or absence of leak in an ink flowing passage has been proposed (refer to, for example, JP-A-2003-127409). In this inspection method, a leak tester is connected to the ink cartridge, and air is pressure-fed into the ink cartridge. Thereafter, the outflow of air leaking from the ink cartridge is measured by the leak tester, whereby the presence or absence of the leak is confirmed.
However, in the above inspection method, the ink pack (ink cartridge) must be connected to the leak tester one by one for inspection, and it takes much labor for inspection.
Under these circumstances, an object of the invention is to provide a method of filling liquid into a liquid containing member in which liquid having high degassed and clean levels can be filled, and a liquid filling apparatus.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method of filling liquid into a liquid containing member in which liquid is used efficiently and liquid having high degassed and clean levels can be filled, and a liquid filling apparatus.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a method of inspecting a liquid containing member, which can perform inspection easily.